Kilter — Briefing for the Head of IT

A self-hosted reconciliation platform for correspondent-banking treasuries.

Version 1.0 (production)
Audience CIO / Head of IT
Reading time ~3 minutes

Kilter replaces the legacy nostro tool, removes IT from the daily extract-and-send loop, and ships with a modern security posture out of the box — TOTP MFA, encrypted secrets at rest, immutable audit log, no outbound telemetry, container-deployable. Production-ready · in pilot in Ghana · commercially available today.

The daily IT loop today

06:00. IT runs four hand-written extract scripts against four account lists (nostros, B2W/W2B, prepaid+charges, all GLs) on the core. SFTPs the .xlsx outputs to ops.
Ops finds a missing file, wrong date, or wrong account. IT re-runs. 30–60 min slip.
Corona-class tool of record. Sessions close daily; breaks roll forward on a manual Excel sheet owned by name.
Audit asks "who cleared this on the 14th?" — answer is a filename and a memory.

Kilter removes step 1 entirely via the Core Pull add-on. IT authors the SQL templates once and locks them; ops + a dedicated it role pull from the web UI. Step 2 vanishes, step 3 becomes a first-class ledger, step 4 becomes an immutable audit log.

What ships today

Five roles · admin · it · ops · audit · internal_control
Core Pull add-on · Oracle (Flexcube / T24-on-Oracle), MS-SQL, MySQL, Postgres · pluggable drivers
Account Groups + .txt importer · mirrors today's per-class account lists
Pull Schedules · cron · ordered groups · stop-on-failure · Teams / email notify
Matching engine · 5 tiers · FX-aware · many-to-one · per-account config
Carry-forward open items · rolling ledger across sessions
Month-end certificates · maker / checker / approver · signed snapshot is immutable
TOTP MFA mandatory · optional LDAP / AD password layer · sliding-window sessions
Encrypted at rest · TOTP, SMTP, Core Pull DB credentials (Fernet)
Security headers · rate-limited login · 300 MB upload cap · auto-docs disabled in prod
Internal pentest passed · external attestation Q4 2026
Single Docker container · SQLite for pilots · MySQL for scale · air-gappable
No outbound telemetry · no update checks · no analytics

Vs. Corona / legacy tools

	Kilter	Legacy
Self-service extracts	Web UI · locked SQL templates · scheduled	IT scripts on server, hand-spooled
Carry-forward	Account-level ledger across sessions	Manual Excel carry-forward sheet
Audit trail	Every decision logged · immutable · queryable	Per-screen, partial, no decision-level history
MFA & identity	TOTP + optional LDAP · session revocation on role flip	Often single-factor or SSO-dependent
Format support	MT940/950, camt.053/054, any GL `.xlsx` via BYO column map	Vendor-specific; expensive to extend
Change cycle	Weeks · customer-driven add-ons	Months to a year · vendor PS engagements
Deployment	One Docker container · <1 day to install	Fat install across DB / app / web tiers
Network footprint	Inbound 443; outbound optional; no vendor callbacks	Phones home for licence / telemetry / updates
Licensing	Per-institution · Core Pull as priced add-on · in writing	Per-seat, per-module · opaque, escalates

Honest about the trade-off. Corona has a 25-year track record, a SWIFT message warehouse, and deep switch integrations. Kilter is modern, focused, and IT-owned. Banks where reconciliation is one of many things IT manages tend to value the latter.

The pilot — four weeks

Week 1 · Stand up. Container on a 4 vCPU / 8 GB VM. LDAP test bind. Admin enrolled. One cash account added.

Week 2 · Author templates. IT writes the Core Pull SQL against the core's test instance. Locks templates. Account Groups mirror today's .txt files. it role assigned.

Week 3 · Run parallel. Same day's pulls via Kilter alongside the legacy spool-and-send. Confirm parity. ops role assigned.

Week 4 · Cut over. Cutover for that account class. Legacy script stays as a one-cycle fallback. IT exits the daily loop.

What IT validates before signing

Security posture · pentest summary · architecture note · external attestation Q4 2026
Deployment · docs/DEPLOY.md — container, reverse proxy, certs, backup, log rotation
Identity · docs/LDAP.md — AD bind shape, server-keyed TOTP enrolment
Core connectivity · driver matrix (DEPLOY.md §5c) — you supply read-only DB account & SQL
Data residency · everything stays in your VM · single SQLite file (or MySQL dump) is the backup
Commercial terms · Pilot / Core / Scale / Custom tiers · Core Pull $8K/yr add-on · +connectors $3K each

"I'd like fifteen minutes with your IT lead to walk through the security pack and the Core Pull integration. The goal is to validate whether Kilter fits the infrastructure pattern at [bank], not to sell — pricing is already in writing. If the answer is yes, we can stand up a sandbox in days."